Discussion: Border Troubles

Border TroublesBORDER TROUBLES
A sad day for my wife and I and a word of warning for travelers considering cross-border travel. Heightened security that went into effect Jan. 23, 2007 is shutting the door.

I live in British Columbia, Canada. My wife and I were supposed to be on our way to Palm Springs yesterday to play in the SSUSA Palm Springs – Springs Worlds (it was also our 25th wedding anniversary). When I arrived at the border I was turned back because they found a few incidents on my record going back almost 40-years. I am informed that Homeland Security does not care if the incident was for DUI or any other infraction. This after dozens of visits a year to the US to play ball and vacation every year over the past 20-years was a complete shock.

If I want to ever go to the US again (and I do) I need to apply for a Travelers Waiver at a fee I am told of about $500. per year and must renew it every year or go through the application process again, finger printing, photo and wait period. I am informed that the Waiver process takes a minimum of three months and up to two years.

I thought I would post this for any other travelers considering cross-border travel. Apply for your travel waiver before you go, as the entire denial process at the border is very embarrassing, stressful and potentially costly with cancelled flight and hotels etc.

For more information: http://www.amcits.com/criminal_ineligibility_visa.asp

EV:
As a Navy veteran and high school history teacher, I am saddened that it has come to this, and sickened that my country has allowed fear to cause it to turn its back on our northern neighbors. Please accept my apology.

EV...I can hear the saddening in your voice... As always, our country does too little too late and the innocent seem to have to pay....Never had moe fun than playing with our Canadian buddies.....I was hoping that this border crap would not hurt our inter - country but it sounds like it already has. If they ran background checks on 99.9% of our politicians, they would be way worse off than you. But then again, maybe that is why our ex-politicians do not do speaking engagements 0ut of this country. I am sorry to hear about your problem. Maybe you can email someone form Mexico to get further advice.

Well there sure is more to this story. Canada has been doing this same thig for over tweenty years. Many years ago our team was traveling to the pif tournament in Sherbrooke canada. One of our players a dui charged against him 6 years prior and they turned him back. We had to leave him in Vermont for the weekend near the border and pick him up on our way back. This was in the 80's before all of the terrorist. In order for him to travel with us the following year he had to go to NYC to the Canadian embassy and fill out a mountain of paperwork and pay 500.00. Well he just decided not to go instead.
That policy is still in effect if you are going to Canada today.
Now don't get me wrong I like to go to Canada and I like playing ball in Canada but their policies are not very good.
If you watched 60 minutes about 4 months ago they had an entire story about gaining asylum in Canada from known countrys that harbor terrorist. This is how easy it is for terrorist to get asylum in Canada. Get on a plane and fly to Canada, while in flight go to the bathroom and tear up all of you documents, when you land in Canada go to immagration in the airport and ask for asylum. They will get your name off of the passenger manifest and give you papers to stay in the country legally. This takes 45 minutes.
Most of the terrorist that have done crimes against the U.S.A. came through the Canadian border at some time. If you can remember back a year or two they caught terrorrist comming through the border in Washington state with explosives.
Agreed a sad day for you and your wife I feel bad for you, but what has Canada done to help the world to secure all of our borders? It is a global problem with no real answer, and many innocent people suffer for the guilty.
GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS

If you think this is B.S.
GOOGLE: canadian terrorist immagration. There are many articals on the facts, I hope you have a month to read them all. I am not against Canada what so ever but these problems have been around for many years. Our good friend to the north was shocked about not getting into our country and his country has been doing this for at least 20 years that I know of. Sorry about telling the truth!!!

I did not mean to make my post sound weighted in favor of one Country or the other. The border policies do unfortunately work both ways and travelers should be wary of both Countries border policies. It is why I worded the post as "cross-border" travel but looking back at it I see it seems subjective, based on my experience.

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